Source: AJMC, July 2017

The Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight recently published a study that analyzed 112 different melanoma tumors in attempt to correlate partially exhausted cytotoxic lymphocytes (peCTLs) and regulatory T lymphocyte (Treg) levels with response to combination immunotherapy.

The patients were treated with anti-programmed death 1 (PD-1) monotherapy or combination therapy and their responses, Treg levels, and demographics were compared. PD-1 inhibition activates the peCTLs and can induce tumor regression.

“We previously showed that the peCTL fraction predicts response to anti–PD-1 monotherapy,” the authors wrote. “Here, we sought to correlate peCTL and Treg levels with response to combination immunotherapy, and with demographic/disease characteristics, in metastatic melanoma patients.”